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AGE

Name: AGE
Author: Hortense Calisher
ISBN: 0714530123

by Hortense Calisher ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 25, 1987

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In this brief wry-and-bitters mulling of the nagging, niggling, old-age preoccupations with death and dying, Calisher has reined in her usual frothing diction and dialogue for the even-tempered (but hardly conventional) joint meditation of a witty, much-loving septuagenarian couple. Gemma, 77, is an architect; husband Rupert, 73, is a poet, and they have each decided to add perhaps an "inch of grace" to dying by recording daily accounts of living and thinking in an "almanac"—to be read by the survivor. Old age is scary in minor habit changes—"the sudden cabs, purse fumblings, the sense that one has talked too much. . ." (or not at all). Both have blackouts and blank lapses. Rupert "never dreamed that either of us would begin dying in the mind." The past seeps in—Gemma's first husband, Italian Arturo; two daughters—one doomed and dead, one in Saudi Arabia; Rupert's first wife, Gertrude. And the pair are visited by contemporaries as well—fatuous and successful Sherm ("The grand old countryman of American culture") and dutiful wife Kit (Gemma and Rupert will read later of their double suicide). The visit of forever-onstage Sherm makes them appreciate even more their non-octogenarian neighbor, Mr. Quinn, floating sweetly on hope, and having, to their delight, "an amateur old age." They're called upon to attend Gertrude in her hospice-style dying—a grisly business, but Gertrude's plan to reclaim Rupert, at last, dies with her. The two quarrel fiercely over the need for their almanac: like any "infighting couple. . .two angry sofas shouting True, True across a square of rug." As for old age: "It's like life. A total disease. . .worthy of being spoken of every day." An amusing, acrid and sharp view of the "total disease" of life and death, paced by Calisher's own teasing imagination.

Pub Date: Sept. 25, 1987

ISBN: 0714530123

Page Count: 124

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicholson

Review Posted Online: March 23, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1987

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
TATTOO FOR A SLAVE
by Hortense Calisher

- BOOK REVIEW
SUNDAY JEWS
by Hortense Calisher

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NOVELLAS OF HORTENSE CALISHER
by Hortense Calisher

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

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Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.